In Northern Love, Paul Nonnekes pursues debates in psychoanalysis and cultural theory in pursuit of a distinctive conception of a Canadian masculinity. In close discussions of novels by Rudy Wiebe ( A Discovery of Strangers ) and Robert Kroetsch ( The Man from the Creeks ), Nonnekes ranges from Hegel to Lacan, and Butler and Kristeva to “i?ek, eliciting an evolving conception of love characteristic of the Canadian cultural imaginary.